5 Simple Visual Planning Templates

The meeting you’re leading was supposed to be about creating a positive vision of the future, but Sarah and Miguel keep bringing up everything that’s going wrong. Your attempts to get out of “challenge space” are failing and you’re exhausted. Time to break out the SWOT matrix.

A SWOT matrix is a tool to visually brainstorm strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It’s a simple template that allows groups to see the conversations they’ve had and identify the topics they still need to discuss.

Sarah’s and Miguel’s complaints would populate the “weaknesses” and “threats” spaces. When a SWOT matrix has a concentrated amount of comments in these spaces, the group will naturally want to fill the blank space in “strengths” and “opportunities” without you having to probe them.

What is a Visual Template??

A visual template works like a silent facilitator. It includes prompts, instructions and empty space for participants to fill with their knowledge, ideas and insights. Sometimes a facilitator guides participants through a visual template, and other times, a facilitator offers instructions and gives participants time to work through it as a team. How much time? That depends on the group and the template!

When using a visual template, the visual and the participants guide the process. When questions and ideas are visualized, it’s easier to identify what knowledge and plans are missing. It's a quiet signal that encourages participants to not get stuck on one step or piece of the process, making meetings faster, smoother and easier to facilitate.

What is already out there??

You can be a visual facilitator and never draw a thing. There are plenty of visual templates already out there and available for you to use. It’s a good idea to have some of these tools in your back pocket when you need a resource quickly.?

The Grove is largely thought of as the originator of visual templates. Their Strategic Visioning toolkit is very easy to use and widely applicable. I use or adapt their Graphic Gameplan for nearly every meeting I facilitated.

The other resource I love is Design a Better Business, a book and website that includes templates and instructions you can use for almost any meeting you might be facilitating.

Sometimes you just want a simple, easy-to-use template, and in that case, continue reading on our blog for 5 simple visual planning templates to quickly adapt for your needs.

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